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Tag: Eng. Project #2

In my essay i knew what i wanted to include because i went over the points needed to be added in my essay and i found a way to work it into my project the best way i knew how. i added more information and detail about the area and the two buildings/stores i chose. i eliminated most things that were not important to the subject matter and most repeating facts i eliminated from my essay. to organize my essay i just put the into first and directions to my place then everything else just fit into place. my classmates feedback help me add what i needed into my essay like what i was missing, like the senses i forgot to put in my draft so i added that into my final project, and also by reading my classmates essay helped me see how to organize the essay and gave me examples of different thesis statements. i honestly lost track of time while doing this project because i had a moment of writers block toward the end of the essay.

“New York City”, what’s the first impression of that place? When you listen people tell you about New York City, what kind of the imagination come into your mind? Although there have many different juxtapositions & style of buildings, different cultural tradition of people, different landscape around us. New York City is not only hear or seeing, its about living the present and knowing the past. The past build up our beautiful and prosperous city; Bring the opportunity around the city in the present. You have to open all of your senses, perceptive of New York City by your feeling, seeing, hearing and touching. This idea come with the articles “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead, “Never listen to what people tell you about old New York, because if you don’t witness it, it is not a part of your New York.” The best example that starts to create our own perspective of New York, no matter what happens we have to accept the new and face forward our New York is changing..

The overlapping New York City I choose to go the Empire Fulton Ferry Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park, they juxtapose each other between the Brooklyn Bridge. I thought this is the best place for people to know it when you never ever seen the view of Manhattan. To get to this location you exit out of the Namm building and turn left to the Jay street, then go through the Jay street to the York street and turn left. Keep going to the Washington street and turn right to the Plymouth street, before you walk into the Plymouth street. Around those street have a fascinating place for people take a rest and most attractive shop. When you walked into the Plymouth street, the Manhattan Bridge is on your right side, there is the Empire Fulton Ferry Park. Keep walking to the left side, then will see the Jane’s Carousel and the Brooklyn Bridge in front of you, there is the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Brooklyn Bridge Park is a park on the Brooklyn side of the East River in New York City. It’s a recreational, environmental and cultural destination enjoyed by visitors to New York City. There have a perfect view of the Manhattan, all juxtaposition of the buildings stand in the other side, have different style of the buildings between Manhattan and Brooklyn. As you know, Manhattan is the economic and cultural center of the United States. When you gaze afar into the Manhattan, the skyline at night from the those Building at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Shown are clear examples of Art Deco, Modern and Old architecture. Manhattan’s buildings have architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles spanning distinct historical and cultural periods. “Our old buildings still stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows, were lucky enough to know them for a time. They are a part of the city we carry around. It is hard to imagine that something will take their place…” From the article “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead, those building recorded the memory of different periods, is an important part of the New York City. Even though, some buildings start to change when they are torn down and a new are build in its place. But the point is to move forward because New York will continue to change with or without us.

Why I’ll choose Brooklyn Bridge Park as the location because I always take the N train go through the Manhattan Bridge, I look at the Jane’s Carousel think that is a awesome place for people relaxing and comfortable. Sometimes I take the N train at the night time, the view of Manhattan have an attractiveness to catch my eyeballs. When the nightfall, Manhattan buildings nightscape look similar with my country – Hong Kong, which called the Pearl of the Orient. Both have the modern buildings and multiculturalism background,imposing buildings like the waterfront, but the difference between two places is the level of the buildings. In the New York City, most of the taller buildings are build in the Manhattan, because as you know there is the main economic center then the modern buildings will build at the center. However, it’s difficult to find out the smaller house or buildings in Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is an over-crowded city, have a large population in a small area. There only can build the taller buildings to improve the area problem. Addition, the main reason of I choose because those two parks are the best and convenient place for people turn on the relaxed mood. The peaceful and beautiful environment is indeed enjoyable. Also, parks are often called the green lungs of an urban area, you can enjoy the surrounding view, such as the view of Manhattan at the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Brooklyn Bridge Park and Empire Fulton Ferry Park are the green lungs of an urban area, is a awesome place see the landscape of the Manhattan. Many people of New York City was first seen by different reasons however, from there all start to create own perspective of New York. All of the different story, people, buildings are changing every moment, even though you stand on the park look at the Manhattan. No matter what happens we have to accept the new and face forward our New York is changing, using your sense of hearing, seeing, feeling the change. People have to living the present and knowing the past, then oneday you’ll say “you are a New Yorker when was there before is more real and solid than what is here now.”

New York city has lots of landmarks, many of them are really famous. The U.S. Post Office on Adams street in Brooklyn is a historical main post office and Federal office building. The building its self appears particularly special in the area because of its Romanesque Revival style design.

The Post Office is just one block away from City Tech, Namm Hall. I didn’t notice it, until I took my sixteen minus of walk. To get to the U.S. Post Office with my path, first you need to walk left after get out of Namm hall, at the first block on your right hand side across the street, you can see a park, its a lively playground, many people who is local play sport, handout with friends and relaxing here. As you keep walking, at the same block on your left hand side, there is another building of City Tech. In front of that building cross the street, there is a church which is right next to the park. Keep walking about 5 minus, you can see the third building of City Tech. On the right hand side, you can see a little garden where you can take a break. Keep walking straight down to the next block until reach to the road turn right and look up, you can see a bridge that connects two building, that is for people who in the building could directly walk to other building on the other side of the street . Walking straight to the next block, you can see a parking lot and also, you can see the Brooklyn bridge is not far away from here. Now turn right so you are on the direction towards to the Post Office. This is Adams Street, as you can see on this block its all apartments, until you reach to the end of the block, you can see a restaurant called. Celeste Cafe & Grill. Now look diagonally across the street. There is the U.S. Post Office.

This U.S. Post Office is just one street away, behind the Namm Hall building. The building took over the whole block. The post office is not the only work site of the building, US Passport Agency, US Attorney’s Office, and US District Bankruptcy Court are also in there. The architecture feels like 19th centuries, because of its appearance. The whole building appears in white, it contains many features of the Romanesque Revival style. The building has seven stories tall.

I took this photo at a small park which is at the junction between Johnson St. and Cadman Plaza. In the photo, you can see the square corner tower rise above the roof line. Each level was distinguished with different belt courses around the building. You can also see an American flag is on the left side of the photo. In order to capture angle in the photo of the building, you must stand on the right hand side of the statue in the park I was talking about earlier.

I choose U.S. Post Office as the location because when I first arrive to that location, it attracts me with its bright white appearance, and the juxtaposition of the post office and the nearby building. The architecture feels like it was built in past few centuries , because of the special design of the building. What I thought about of the building is it must has some stories or it may be a very important building back in time, for some reason the origin purpose of the building is gone, however people don’t want take down the building and make a new architecture. They probably think this building is part of the history, its priceless, so they make the building to a post office. From what I learned about this building is this building was build for both a post office and courthouse, designed the building in the Romanesque Revival style of architecture in 1885. Its original purpose was build for post office, and courthouse. In 1999 the U.S. General Services Administration purchased the building and began the renovations included the new courtrooms and the restoration of historic courtrooms, original windows and numerous site features. Then the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the U.S. Trustee, and the Offices of the U.S. Attorney added in to the building.

From the article “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead, it states that “Go back to your old haunts in your old neighborhoods and what do you find: they remain and have disappeared.” Even though, we didn’t have the opportunity to see the changes of the post office, however the history would like to tell us about what part of the building have change. The building was built in 1885, after the almost fifty years later, in 1930, as the population continued to grow, officials determined more space of the building was needed, the addition extended to the north. The article also mentioned “Our old buildings still stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows, were lucky enough to know them for a time.” the statement have shown that it was luck enough that people can still see those old buildings as they walking through their long and short shadows.

The U.S. Post office on Adams street in Brooklyn is a very historical architecture, it’s also a very important building in New York. This is an example of juxtaposition in New York, buildings overlapping each other, make the city more diverse with different scene. Also to remind people that world changes so unpredictable, when they realize something was changed, its probably has changed months ago, because people became so careless about the stuffs they seem everyday in their life. So we should pay more attention to the stuffs surround us, before they change their original form.

New York is an ever changing place with many places throughout the city tending to overlap with two different New York’s. So I went around the surrounding area of City Tech to find one of these Overlapping New York’s, I finally did at Brooklyn Heights. First off I exited the Namm building and turning left down on Jay Street towards Tillary Street. From there I made a left on Tillary until I got to Clinton Street you know that you’re going the right way because on your left is a small park dedicated to all the Korean war veterans. I continued to follow Clinton Street until I hit Pierrepont Street. When i arrived at Pierrepont Street I followed it noticing all of the nice buildings and how many of them differ from each other and how much they differ from the buildings I’m used to in Times Square, until I finally arrived at Brooklyn Heights.

The overlapping New York in that area is that you can see the huge differences between the small building in Brooklyn Heights and the huge towering buildings of Manhattan. You can see the difference between them in that all the residential buildings in Brooklyn Heights are made of brick while the huge buildings of Manhattan are made of steel. Also from the side of Brooklyn Heights some people may have different views of both Manhattan and Brooklyn. For example some people from the side of Brooklyn Heights may see Manhattan as the place where they work while others like myself see Manhattan as home. On the other hand people on the side of Manhattan looking at Brooklyn will either see Brooklyn as home or either as a foreign place to those who may have never been too Brooklyn. While I was there I also saw a photograph of the old New York skyline with the twin towers tied to the fence. I thought that it offered a bit of insight into someone else’s New York. For example someone who might have lived in Brooklyn heights before 9/11will remember the skyline before the twin towers fell and therefore make that a part of their own New York while those that came after 9/11 only know what the skyline might look like without the twin towers or with the Freedom tower in the skyline. The best example of this that I can think of is in Colson Whitehead’s novel City Limits. In it Whitehead says “I still call it the Pan Am building, not out of affectation, but because that’s what it is.” This clearly shows that different people can have their own version of New York. Like I said those that had lived before 9/11 will always see the freedom tower as the place where the twin towers stood and those who lived after will see it as the new freedom tower. Another point that helps is when Whitehead says: “For that new transplant from Des Moines who is starting her first week of work at a Park avenue South insurance firm, that titan squatting over Grand Central is the Met life Building, and for her it always will be.” This quote further drives home the point the different New York’s between different people. Regardless those are three different New York’s that may belong to anyone that lives in Brooklyn Heights.

Also in view at Brooklyn heights is the Brooklyn Bridge to everyone it represents a connection between both Manhattan and Brooklyn. This bridge is used to bridge two different people, even though they are the people in both Brooklyn and Manhattan are still all New Yorkers they are all entirely different people. So in that sense it is not only a bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn but it is also a bridge between different New York’s

In the photo I took captures the juxtaposition between the small quaint buildings in Brooklyn heights compared to the huge towering buildings in Manhattan. You can easily see the differences between the buildings size and design. It also captures the differences between the different skylines of the different New York’s and how some people may have grown up with one thing while others grew up with another. These are all ways people may see New York through their eyes. That will never be the end either, as more new people come into this world at different times they too will experience completely different New York’s compared to the New York we have experienced in our life.

There are always changes going on around us whether it be the people around us or the neighborhood we grew up in and that we know of. Change is definitely happening constantly in New York. Every corner you turn you see construction happening, they’re either building new houses, building complexes, fixing up roads, or even adding new businesses but there is always something being changed here in new york. I live I New York and I see a lot of changes going on by my neighborhood like they’re building a new mall by my house and fixing up the roads on the belt parkway/southern state. There are a lot of things that use to be here when I was younger and that are not here anymore. Another change people would notice are overlapping neighborhoods, like there could be a nice neighborhood then when you turn the corner the neighborhood could change in an instant and have run down houses and dirty streets, and even you can see a strip of stores and there could be a lot of little self owned businesses and then you see a nice big store that looks out of place that you wouldn’t expect would be there. Changes and improvements will always be apart of the New York lifestyle.

The place I chose for this project is a pretty good example of a store that looks out of place and shouldn’t or not expected to be in that spot. I chose a 99-cent store next to a jewelry store on the corner of Lawrence Street and Helen Keller Place. First you exit out the Namm building from the 300 Jay Street side and turn right. You keep going straight for 2 blocks until you reach Willoughby Street, once you get to Willoughby Street you turn left and cross the street and keep going straight until you reach a jewelry store called Giovanni’s Fine Jewelry and next to it is a 99 cent store called 99 cent City.

When I think of a jewelry store I think it would be next to nicer stores or more well known stores in a nicer neighborhood. This is because when people shop in more well known expensive stores those people shopping will be more attracted to the jewelry store. When you see the jewelry store next to this 99-cent store I think how does the jewelry store get business when both stores attract different types of customers. The 99-cent store attracts customers that look for cheap or inexpensive items to buy, and when I looked in the jewelry store the jewelry was nowhere near 99 cents. Unless the person is looking for a jewelry store to go to or looking for that jewelry store because its close to them then I don’t know why it would be next to a 99 cent store, and the neighbor hood didn’t look all that extraordinary where you think a jewelry store would be. This is where juxtaposition takes place. Juxtaposition is when two places or things are seen together and have contrasting qualities or traits.

When in all of these different places peoples senses come in to play, like what you may see, hear, smell, and even what you feel when you’re in these places. The thing about senses they work different with every person, for example one person may see something that use to be there and another person may just see what is there now. In the novel City Limits by Colson Whitehead he said “Thousands of people pass that storefront everyday, each one haunting the streets of his or her own New York, not one of them seeing the same thing.” Not one person sees the same New York as the next. When I was at the spot with the 99-cent store and the jewelry store my senses were going all over the place, when I looked around I saw a lot of people walking fast like they were rushing to get somewhere, but to put in consideration it was around 3 O’clock and people are getting out of school and work so people may have either been on there lunch break or rushing to get home because the trains are right there. My sense of smell was going on too because there are a lot of places to get to eat around that area and all of those different smells are rushing at you at once. When you stop and listen you hear all types of things like people talking on the phone, other peoples conversations the sound of traffic and its pretty loud because in this area it gets crowded with people that are coming from or going to work and coming from or going to school and it gets even louder because there is construction going on just around the corner from these two stores.

This is just a little example of juxtaposition in a huge city of different types of neighborhoods overlapping each other. Around every corner you’ll see all types of changes and people that live in that area may have different memories and stories of what they have been through in that area and another person may have a completely different story or memory of that area just because the different times they started either living or hanging around that neighborhood. Sometimes we may not want to see change in these neighborhood and we may thing things are fine the way they are but in actuality change is inevitable, there is always something that needs to get moved or replaced and everything has room for improvement, if you look at a picture of New York City from the 1960s to a picture of the city today they look completely different. This is what’s happening to our city and everywhere else other then New York we just have to except the change and just move on and hold on to our memories.

All around New York we see different people and different ways of life. We see different buildings, sceneries, right next to each other. This is New Yorks overlapping. Different people, different routines right next to each other. New York is always changing, thus leaving different sceneries in our neighborhood, such as a Café and a Fire Headquarter.

I went around the City Tech neighborhood in look to find any overlapping New Yorks, and I did. In order to find the overlapping New York I found, you first need to exit City Tech from the Namm building. Once you are outside, turn right on Jay Street and start walking. As you walk for about 5 minutes, you will pass a parking lot, a Halal Cart, a resting area where a lot of people will be sitting and socializing with their family or friends. Then the Jay Street Metro Tech subway. As soon as you pass the subway about halfway through the block, look across the street and you will see the overlapping New York. You will see a tall, beautiful building called the Brooklyn Fire Headquarters and right next to it you will see a small store name Metro Café.

The Overlapping New York here is a big beautiful building (Brooklyn Fire Headquarters) and a small store name Metro Star Café. The Big building is newly renovated, however, you can tell it was there for a long time because of the way it is designed, this building is very unique. It is old fashion. Whereas the Café looks newly build as. It has a modern time look to it. The fire house has a pointy rooftop, you can see the patterns in the design on the roof whereas the Café has a flat roof and you cannot even see it from the street view. The Fire Headquarter is a huge building about 6 stories high, and it even has a balcony. The café is just two stories high. The fire house has many windows about 20, where the café only has about 3. The fire house is made of brick where the café is not. On the café, you can clearly see the name on it right at the top, but you cannot see the name of the Fire Headquarter on the building anywhere. My guess is they have not put it up as of yet. The fire Headquarter has an arch door entrance and a regular door entrance, which really makes the design of the building beautiful. As for the café, it has a very basic door entrance.

The Fire Headquarters represents New York’s safety. New York is very quick when it comes to responding to danger. Without this fire headquarter many people could have lost their lives. Thus depriving them of exploring New York and the world. This Fire Headquarter has been on Jay Street for a long time, and many people have made it a part of their New York. They may pass it every day while walking down Jay Street either taking a stroll, going to work or school, this Headquarter is a part of their daily life. And so is the café, people go in their every day to get coffee to go to work or where ever. The Café represents New Yorkers and food. New Yorkers love food. New Yorkers live on Coffee, we have to get up early and coffee is the way to get that morning boost. If this café is to be removed and replace many New Yorkers will be affected, they are used to seeing that café there and going in their every day. If it is to be removed, they will have to find an alternative.

The photo I took shows the frame of both buildings. On the right is the small café, and on the left is the huge Fire Headquarter. It captures the juxtaposition nicely. You can clearly see how different these two buildings really are. The main focus here is the Fire Headquarter because of the size, whereas the café is so small, you barely look at it. These two buildings are completely different, the Fire Headquarter is big, tall, and very clean like the other buildings around there, whereas the café is a small short building smack in the middle of the tall big buildings. Both buildings, however, are highly maintained.

I decided to choose these two subjects to juxtapose because they are so completely different to me. Walking down Jay Street my eye catches this big beautiful building which is the Brooklyn Fire Headquarters, and right next to it is a small café that you can miss you don’t look carefully. What strikes me the most is why they would build a small café right in the middle of these big tall buildings? It just does not fit right. What I want to know is, how long has the fire house and the café been there? What was there before the café was built there? Why did they choose to build a café in that location? As Whitehead said from City Limits:

“Go back to your old haunts in your old neighborhoods and what do you find: they remain and have disappeared. The greasy spoon, the deli, the dry cleaner you scouted out when you first arrived and tried to make those new streets yours: they are gone.”

In other words when you go back to your old neighborhood you might not see those same things you use to see from the time you were once there. This applies to this location because I did some research and discovered there use to be another building where the café now is, therefore, when people return to Jay street one day they will want to know what happened to the place that the café replace. That building is now gone and a new one took its place. Whitehead also said, “Maybe we become New Yorkers the day we realize that New York will go on without us.” Meaning New York is always changing, thus leaving different sensory in our neighborhoods, even though we do not want the change sometimes New York will keep evolving in the future with or without us.

WORK CITED

Whitehead, Colson. “City Limits.” The Colossus of New York: A City in Thirteen Parts. New York: Random House, 2004. 1-12. Web.

I choose U.S. Post Office as the location for this project because when I first arrive to that location, it attracts me with its bright white appearance. The architecture feels like in the past centuries , because of the special design of the building. What I thought about of the building is it must has some stories or it may be a very important building back in time, for some reason the origin purpose of the building is gone, however people don’t want take down the building and make a new architecture. They probably think this building is part of the history, its priceless, so they make the building to a post office. From what I learned about this building is this building was build for both a post office and courthouse, designed the building in the Romanesque Revival style of architecture in 1885. From the article “City Limits” by Colson Whitehead, it states that “Go back to your old haunts in your old neighborhoods and what do you find: they remain and have disappeared.” Even though, we didn’t have the opportunity to see the changes of the post office, however the history would like to tell us about what part of the building have change. The building was built in 1885, after the almost fifty years later, in 1930, as the population continued to grow, officials determined more space of the building was needed, the addition extended to the north. The article also mentioned “Our old buildings still stand because we saw them, moved in and out of their long shadows, were lucky enough to know them for a time.” the statement have shown that it was luck enough that people can still see those old buildings as they walking through their long and short shadows.

Our world is made with many different pieces. New York is one piece of the world, Brooklyn is one piece of New York, and the two locations I choose are pieces of Brooklyn. The two locations are Adams street and the part of Jay street that between Tillary street and Sand street.

It is Jay street when you walk out of the Namm building of city tech. Turn left and on your right hand side, it’s the Amalgamated bank. Go across the Tillary street. There is a park called McLaughlin park. You can see people playing basketball and handball there. Next to the park, you can see the Cathedral Basilica of St. James, the the cathedral church of the Diocese of Brooklyn. Keep going straight on Jay street, there is another building of city tech. If you look forward, you will see the Manhattan bright. A lots of people walking on it. Turn right on the Sand street. There is an eyes catching long aisle between two buildings. Keep going down on Sand street, it is Brooklyn bright! And you can see the buildings in Manhattan from there. I think it would be awesome if you look at them at night. Turn left at the end of Sand street, it is the Adams street. There are many cars parking on that street. Keep going forward, there is a big park on the other side called Whitman park. But it is covered by a few buildings. Also you can see some government buildings like US Post Office, Surrogates Court, and Kings Country Supreme Court.

The route I chose to walk from city tech was joyful for me. Before I started the walk, I didn’t know what I would meet and experience. I didn’t carefully look at the map. So everything on the route were new for me. And I was really looking forward to it. But when I went across the Tillary street and looked all the way down along the Jay street. I felt like that was nothing special. I could see those surroundings anywhere in Brooklyn. And that made me a little disappointed. But after I kept walking for a while, I realized that there is Brooklyn, that is how it looks like. This route I chose is piece of Brooklyn. And many of these pieces made up Brooklyn. Every day I am on the same route from home to school. It keeps repeating and that almost makes me forget the name of the place I live. But when I carefully looked at the buildings, the parks, and the people on the route I chose, I felt like that they were reminding me that there is Brooklyn, the place I am living in. Then I walked on the Adams street. And it surprised me. The buildings were different from the Jay street’s. The buildings looked more Modernized. And I felt like I saw a new face of Brooklyn. These two street’s buildings create a juxtaposition. The buildings on Jay street look plain. The buildings on Adams street look majesty, such as the US Post Office, the Surrogates Court, and the Kings Country Supreme Court.

The reason I chose these two subjects is that they look different. The buildings on Adams street are tall and complex. The US Post Office, the Surrogates Court, and the Kings Country Supreme Court all look solemn. The buildings on Jay street between Tillary street and Sand street are shorter and simpler. What strikes me the most is the St James Cathedral. And I want to know when is it built? why did they choose this location? what is the concept of this building?

In the reading “City Limits”, Colson Whitehead once said, “The New York City you live in is not my New York City; how could it be? This place multiplies when you’re not looking. We move over here, we move over there. Over a life time, that adds up to a lot of neighborhoods.” I said that the buildings on Jay street between Tillary street and Sand street seem like nothing special. I can see those surroundings anywhere in Brooklyn. The surroundings look like the same but actually they are different because of the neighborhoods. Whitehead also said, “All our old places are proof that we were here.” Even we live in a same street, the street can be different because it has different meanings for different people live in here. And those meanings are also pieces of the street. Like I said at the beginning, “Our world is made with many different pieces.”

The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at New York City College of Technology (NYCCT), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.

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The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at New York City College of Technology (NYCCT), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.